Five and counting

I wanted to write something today to commemorate September 11th. Something profound. Something reflective and thoughtful. Something appropriate. I'm not sure I have it in me at the moment, but here are my thoughts this evening nonetheless.

I watched a lot of documentaries about 9/11 this weekend. Not the overhyped docudramas on ABC and CBS, but the raw Discovery Channel footage interviewing the survivors. The stories of those trapped on the upper floors and how they called their loved ones to say goodbye. The stories of those lucky enough to step onto the right elevators and survive the collapse. The stories of the police officers' handcuffs returned to their spouses and infant children. These documentaries didn't really dwell in the horror of the day but rather the humanity of it all...and I found it impossible to turn them off.

In many ways, I think September 11th caused me to appreciate life a bit more, to take a few chances. We decided to get married, for my husband to go back to grad school. We took a few chances, because hey...you don't know what could happen tomorrow. But the bigger chances, like packing it all up and moving to DC to work on intelligence issues and help in this battle, we never took for a variety of reasons. Our families, friends, church, and lives here.

Some days though, I feel we are a little too comfortable. Like we haven't done enough to help and we haven't done enough to protect ourselves as a nation...even though I'm not quite sure what enough is. I don't believe WWIII is right around the corner, but some days I question that assertion. Jihad is jihad. These people who corrupt Islam in this way -- they don't believe in living peacefully with one another. They believe in dividing and conquering, massacring people until everyone submits to their barbaric way of thinking. How do you convert people who believe in that sort of insanity?

Five years later and we still do not really know. 9/11 changed everything, and it changed nothing at the same time. For a short time we really came together as people and thought about what was in important -- in our lives and how we wanted to live as a society. Most of that has faded away now. Our government has foiled plots and managed to keep us safe, even as Britain, India, Russia, Spain, Thailand and other countries have been subjected to terrorist slaughters. This week though, the nation has relived the memories and some of the questions from that day have been dragged back into our collective consciousness. Politicians nitpick and use the war to attack one another, but significant thoughtful discourse on what needs to be done is nowhere to be seen.

What will it take for this sort of discourse to return? I really do wonder, and I hope when it does that it will not be too late.

On Twenty-something Disaffection

I'm one of the biggest Scrubs fans you will find anywhere. I liked Garden State, and I'm sort of looking forward to seeing The Last Kiss. But I still find this rundown of Zach Braff’s 10 Easy Tips for Writing Films About Twenty-Somethings® spot-on and amusing to boot.

Hey government?

Listen to my phone calls. I really don't care. There's really nothing you are going to be that interested in hearing, unless you're into what colors bridesmaids' dresses should be and what my hubby and I should buy for the next baby shower gift and the latest so-called crisis at work.

But really....keep doing what you're doing. And keep catching these guys, okay?

(The libertarian in me is somewhat embarassed tonight and will return at an unspecified date in the future. Perhaps months after I've seen World Trade Center and ceased to be perturbed by today's revelations. War is hell, but what are you supposed to do when there are wackos like this out there planning to blow up thousands out of hate. I really don't know.)

A Smidge of B-Ball

Is it wrong for me to think that the Magic and the Jazz were big winners tonight? I realize I am a biased observer here, but I am happy to see James Augustine and Dee Brown drafted in the first two rounds, although they were both taken a big low imho. And the prospect of Dee and Deron rushing down the court and playing off one another again gives me chills.

I'm already scheming up ways in my head to plan wintertime vacations to Utah (skiing?) and Orlando (Disney?). We shall have to see what transpires. Shannon Brown to Cleveland is also an intriguing posibility. I may have to start attending NBA games if all my favorite collegiate players keep graduating :)

I'm also getting ready to leave on a much-needed vacation tomorrow. This whole working 50 hours a week and trying to handle a graduate summer class thing...it's way overrated. Plus we've had a lot of minor, yet annoying health issues to deal with lately and have a surgery fast approaching here. Zoning out on a southeastern beach for a week starting tomorrow, but I may try to post a few thoughts if Internet access allows and my brain has sufficient unwound.

Happy Independence Day a bit early to you and yours!

Big Day in Galesburg

Okay, so it's not exactly a post on something meaningful and important...but Stephen Colbert's commencement speech at Knox College this weekend was big news in these parts. You can read the whole thing on the Knox College website. The speech is really quite witty and is getting Knox some great national press this week.

A few choice excerpts:

"There are so many challenges facing this next generation, and as they said earlier, you are up for these challenges. And I agree, except that I don’t think you are. I don’t know if you’re tough enough to handle this. You are the most cuddled generation in history. I belong to the last generation that did not have to be in a car seat. You had to be in car seats. I did not have to wear a helmet when I rode my bike. You do. You have to wear helmets when you go swimming, right? In case you bump your head against the side of the pool. Oh, by the way, I should have said, my speech today may contain some peanut products."

"On a beautiful day like this I’m reminded of my own graduation 20 years ago, at Northwestern University. I didn’t start there, I finished there. On the graduation day, a beautiful day like this. We’re all in our gowns. I go up on the podium to get my leather folder with my diploma in it. And as I get it from the Dean, she leans in close to me and she smiles, and she says...[train whistle] that’s my ride, actually. I have got to get on that train, I’m sorry. [Heads off stage.] Evidently that happens a lot here. ..." (Incredibly funny only to those who are very familiar with Galesburg, Illinois)

"But the best reason for me to come to speak at Knox College is that I attended Knox College. This is part of my personal history that you will rarely see reported. Partly because the press doesn’t do the proper research. But mostly because…it is not true! I just made it up, so this moment would be more poignant for all of us. How great would it be if I could actually come back here—if I was coming back to my alma mater to be honored like this. I could share with you all my happy memories that I spent here in...Galesburg, Illinois. Hanging out at the Seymour Hall, right? Seymour Hall? You know, all of us alumni, we remember being at Seymour Hall, playing those drinking games. We played a drinking game called Lincoln-Douglas. Great game. What you do is, you act out the Lincoln-Douglas debate and any time one of the guys mentions the Dred Scott decision you have to chug a beer. Well, technically 3/5 of a beer. [groans from audience]

You DO have a good education! I wasn’t sure if anybody was going to get that joke."

Regardless of whatever Colbert's political stripes are, he is one funny guy and I thought he gave a thoroughly enjoyable and appropriate graduation address. And apparently last year's commencement speaker Barack Obama had a witty retort to Colbert's shtick...use hand sanitizer after the Pumphandle... I wish I could say the same for the speaker that Knox hopes to land next year. (Insert snarky comment about next year's graduates carrying the Purell here)

And so it continues...

I'm having trouble keeping up with everything at the moment, but just wanted to check in. I've been so busy lately that National Review has redesigned their website, and I have no idea when. If you know me, that's somewhat uncharacteristic. But travel, finishing up my semester, overtime at work, some minor health problems...they can keep me away from the computer for extended periods of time. And don't even ask me how often I made it to the gym last month! But I do have opinions about certain things....immigration and the NCAA's ridiculous stance towards Chief Illiniwek are posts that I see coming in the near future.

My husband thought I was getting on here to complain about how Everwood has likely been cancelled for next year yet Seventh Heaven was renewed. Sadly, this is one of my more well-reasoned opinions at the moment. I'm still sort of sad the WB is going to be gone, as that network and its shows are so closely and fondly associated with my college years. On another note though, my guilty pleasure One Tree Hill was renewed and the promising What About Brian (yay for JJ Abrams dramas). Tradeoffs I suppose. My TV habit will likely continue.

Hope to be posting something thought-provoking soon.

Returning

I've just experienced a couple VERY busy weeks -- attending a conference the past six days and all the related crazy hours at work that normally precede such a trip. Couple this with the fact that it's almost the end of the semester. I'm wrapping up a research project this week, which hopefully will leave me with a bit of downtime to enjoy (and blog) before summer classes begin. Looking forward to the breather!

As someone who digested about four newspapers AND flew on United this afternoon, I spent a lot of time today mulling Flight 93. The movie opens nationwide today, and the overall reviews have been very positive. In fact, Rotten Tomatoes has it at 93% positive at the moment. I think part of why I dwelled on it today was I was up in the air and spent a lot of time with security. In some respect, every time I have travelled since September 11th, I have thought about it. But today it just seemed particularly poignant somehow.

The reviews I read today were Canada Globe and Mail (3 stars - registration required), USA Today (4 stars), Chicago Tribune (4 stars), National Review. I'm not particularly wanting people to go see this movie to get angry or remember what the troops are fighting for at the moment. Rather, I'd recommend seeing it as a tribute, a reflection on the day, and a reminder that the problem sect of militant, radical Islamists has has not ceased to exist.

Darfur, Iraq, London, Bali, Egypt, Afghanistan, Iran, Beslan -- this sort of intolerance continues to rear its ugly head all around the world. We have been fortunate that planned attacks on American soil have not been successful since 2001. But it's all too clear that the problem has not disappeared. Are we going to be ready when it comes for us again? What can we do to help those it's coming for now? That's the question that sprung into my mind this afternoon. The Flight 93 passengers did not just sit back and wait for the "inevitable" to happen. Is that what we're doing now?

I doubt I will make it to the film this weekend, but I will see it soon...no matter how painful and disconcerting it might be. It's not too soon for America to reflect on this again. We need to have movies that deal with the difficult issues and truly make us think. Instead of focusing all our attention on high gas prices and how 'rough' we have it, perhaps we need to step back a bit and remember what that day felt like...and think about what we can do to stop people from feeling this way again.

Da Bleachers

So I must report that Saturday afternoon I saw my first-ever baseball game from the Wrigley Field bleachers. Excuse me, now the newly-renovated Bud Light bleachers. But I must give the beer tycoons credit that the bleachers were a lovely place before the game got started. They were completely covered in beer and peanut shells by the end of the game...but such is life. In many ways at 28, I think I am a bit too old and boring for the most of the shennanigans that go on there...at least the ones that go on at bachelor parties seated directly to our right.

It was actually a pretty good game. A bit slow except for the Cardinals' 6th inning and the Cubs two home runs. We were sitting about 8 rows up between right/center field, and both the home runs came down within about 40 feet of us. We watched the game later on TIVO looking for ourselves, but we were only little flecks of blue and red, if anything, on the broadcast. It also didn't show the several cups of beer that we were showered with after the 2nd home run in the 8th -- intended for the Cardinals fan to our left.

We dressed for football game weather, but some ominous clouds rolled by and there was hardly a cloud in the sky by 1:20 pm. The sun kept us nice and toasty all game long and had us looking like lobsters by game's end. Even if the thermometer said 41F, it felt like 65F at times. However, I heard a much different story from my friend in the shaded stands who was frozen out before the 7th inning stretch. And guess who sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"? John Cusack. Every girl who ever watched Say Anything as a teenager is swooning a bit right now, even if she won't admit it. Of course, we were about as far across the park as we could possibly be -- I got a better glimpse on TiVo after the game.

So anyways, I must thank my sister for a very enjoyable day at the ballpark. And for putting up with a bunch of overly-cocky, asinine Cubs fans running around Wrigleyville all afternoon. But all in all, fun game and the Cubs swept the series...a good weekend.

Couple interesting links

Note 1: For once, I agree with the French -- Apple should shy away from such proprietary music formats . Although I don't necessarily support the government passing a law to BAN this format, I'd like to see the industry trend towards a universal digital music format in the near future. WAV, MP3, RealPlayer, ITunes...it's all a little much for me. I don't really blame the company for trying to get ahead of the curve and basically to pull a Microsoft on the industry. I just have trouble figuring out how the ITunes music format works in turns of burning CDs, putting it on non-IPod players. Part of this is that I simply don't have time to figure out digital music software, since the only time I mess with it is when I need new tunes to listen to while traveling.

I considered getting a IPod video this spring when I thought I was going to be traveling for work about a third of the time, but ultimately I decided they were overpriced and after some discouraging reports about battery life, I decided I'd rather have a player where I could just pop in a AAA battery when my juice ran out. I bought a SanDisk 512MB player for about $60, and I haven't had any problems yet.

Note 2: South Park last night on hybrid cars and the smog/smug associated with them was pretty darn humorous. At one point the smug from San Fransisco, hybrid-friendly South Park, and George Clooney's Oscar acceptance speech all came together to form a "perfect storm" in the west. Iain Murray has a great description of the episode and some commentary on the problems with expecting everyone to drive a hybrid at this point, noting that low-tech non-hybrid cars also play an important role in helping the poor enter the labor market and evacuate in the face of disasters.

Interesting thoughts for the evening...signing off. Between work and school, I'm a bit strapped for energy lately.

Assorted thoughts....

Reviewing the blogs of PeoriaIllinoisian and Polly Peoiria this evening, I discovered a couple posts worthy of mention.

1) Visual proof that Bradley's NCAA tournament run may be over, as the Sports Illustrated cover jinx strikes again. Of course, Dee Brown had the cover all to himself last year, and Marcellus Sommerville is sharing it with players from a few other Cinderellas like George Mason...so possibly its effect will be lessened. I know a couple analysts have them picked to beat Memphis, and my husband had the Tigers going down already. Go Braves!

2) Great post linking to some of the rather amazing pictures of Springfield's tornado damage last weekend. (Then they got 10 inches of snow yesterday; bet those folks are loving Mother Nature right now). For readers familiar with this area, it ripped into the strip malls by White Oaks and Wabash road beyond it. The head was ripped off the Paul Bunyan like Lauterback man statue and the Barrelhead lost its roof. This picture might look familiar to some of my childhood friends and associates: the torn up signs for the Pasta House/old Fuddruckers and Best Buy. What is it with tornados ripping the roofs off electronics stores? If I recall right, a tornado in Bloomington did the same thing to Best Buy there about two years ago.

And as PeoriaIllinoisan notes, don't bother worrying about Governor HotRod! He wasn't in Springfield when it hit. Surprise, surprise.

3) As for Edwin Eisendrath, he may have only garnered 30% of the populace vote, but he's provided me with some amusement this evening. Check out the Blago Game. Can we leave this up until fall to help educate the people of Illinois? Hat tip to Polly Peoria as noted.

Still Reeling

Both my brackets and my Illini pride are still reeling from this weekend's NCAA events. There are plenty of articles out there (Illiniwonk, Tupper) analyzing the foul disparity in the Washington game. I don't think that takes much away from Washington, they played a good game and made the necessary plays down the stretch. However, I was pretty sad to see James and Dee end their careers that way in a game that was less than a hard-fought, evenly-officiated battle.

Also, major props to Bradley and Wichita State for winning their way into the Sweet 16 today and doing their conference proud. These teams have played hard and exceeded their potential the past few days, and it's nice to see someone from the area doing that at this point in time. As for my Illini, there's always next year (or more likely the year after that). I am a Cubs fan after all; I know how this part works.

I hope to post more on the matter after I've had a day or two to digest, but I also have a massive midterm coming up early this week...so look for me Wednesday or later.

Just a Game

While I realize that the NCAA tournament is just basketball and theoretically all in good fun, reading all the rabid Jayhawk fans commentary about rock-chalk and jayhawks at the Peoria Journal Star site has me rooting for an upset this evening. Go Bradley Braves! Do the Missouri Valley proud!

Have I mentioned this is my favorite weekend of the year? Tip-off starts in an hour again. Happy St. Patty's Day everyone!

Updated 11 pm CST: Booyah Braves! Bucknell Bill has transformed into Bradley Bill and his team has made its exit at the hands of another intrepid mid-major. Heck of game there Bradley. You can lose to Pittsburgh next round if you must, but you've done the Missouri Valley Conference proud and made a few alumni I know very happy campers this evening!

Although, I must note that this killed one of my brackets tonight. I very nearly put Pittsburg to the Sweet 16 in both sets, but I changed my mind in the more important one and changed it to Kansas losing in the Elite 8...because after the Missouri Valley tournament championship I was not very confident in BU's chances. But hey in this case, I can deal with being wrong even if it costs me bragging rights.